The Pregnancy Help Network of South Africa has been providing services to pregnancy help organizations across the country since 2000. With over 75 contacts and a number of international partners, the network’s aim is to fully equip pregnancy help leaders and organizations in every South African community. Under Executive Director Daniele Gradwell, it has been moving forward in achieving this goal.
Pregnancy Help News connected with Gradwell to learn more about her informative experience as the director of Pregnancy Help Network/Africa Cares for Life, along with various aspects of the organization, including the challenges it faces and how it’s overcoming them.
Gradwell shared that she first became involved in the pro-life movement after undergoing a distressing unexpected pregnancy many years beforehand. It was challenging to discuss her pregnancy with her family and boyfriend, and to deal with the hard decisions that came with all of it. This experience opened her eyes and her heart to the trials many women face in crisis pregnancies.
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
Several years afterward, Gradwell joined the world of pregnancy help ministry and eventually became director of a community pregnancy help organization, where she saw the important impact their care and support had on families in need. While doing this, she volunteered for South Africa’s Pregnancy Help Network (Africa Cares for Life) and transitioned into the role of executive director in 2014.
The agency has seen growth since it began about 25 years ago. It has been previously reported that the country’s network served over 14,000 lives in 2023, with 288 abortion-to -life decisions and 1,447 clients receiving ultrasound services. These numbers are an underestimation of all the help the network provided, however, as not all of their affiliates consistently submit monthly statistics.
“Seeing the network grow has been a wonderful journey of God developing my leadership while providing in generous ways,” Gradwell said. “Each story we hear from women who’ve found support through us fuels my passion to continue, especially when faced with opposition.”
This opposition has come through the political and cultural challenges the country faces at large. One such challenge, Gradwell previously told Pregnancy Help News, is the stigma surrounding abortion and sexual health, which often leads pregnant women to turn to dangerous and illegal sources.
As a result, the network offers education, compassion, and an open space to have important conversations.
Its crisis line, established in April 2001, provides real-time online support and education five days a week. Gradwell explained that this crisis line has helped dispel myths surrounding abortion practices and given the network a chance to offer a listening ear, along with referrals to pregnancy centers for additional services when needed.
The crisis line and the virtual nature of much of the agency’s work has been a major aid in helping clients. Gradwell has personally promoted this online presence during her leadership, encouraging those who want to help the network to get trained in offering virtual support.
Furthermore, Gradwell made it clear that client testimonies keep them pressing forward in their goals.
One such testimony was the baby girl born healthy after a desperate mother reached out to the network after taking the abortion pill. The mother reached out to her local pregnancy resource center, and her baby was saved when the network provided her with Abortion Pill Reversal (APR), which involves taking progesterone in order to reverse the abortion drug mifepristone’s effects and sustain the pregnancy. Helping provide access to APR is one of the many ways Gradwell’s network has equipped the country’s pregnancy help leaders and organizations.
The agency also provides networking opportunities, leadership development, consulting, prayer, and more so that the country’s pregnancy help organizations can offer free, life-changing services to families in need.
As executive director, Gradwell has been highly involved in this practical support, using her background in training to the network’s advantage. Quarterly online leaders’ forums, annual in-person conferences involving prayer, worship, and equipping volunteers, and regional online support groups are all integral parts of the work she and the network conduct.
The organization’s goal is to treat clients with compassion and ensure that they are truly heard in a non-judgmental space.
“As executive director, I’ve worked to ensure that this culture of care is woven into every level of our operations,” Gradwell said, “from training staff to fostering community partnerships that align with our core values and sensitive language.”
This empathy has not only extended to pregnant women in need, but also to families at large.
Gradwell emphasized how the pro-life movement is not only about preborn children, but also about supporting life in all its stages and strengthening families.
The network’s Legacy Dad Program, for example, has helped empower African fathers to be present in their children’s lives. South Africa has been described as a fatherless country, with 42 percent of children living without fathers according to a 2019 General Household survey. Encouragingly, over 3,000 fathers were served in 2023 through this program.
Overall, under Gradwell’s guidance, the South Africa pregnancy help network has moved forward in achieving its goal of equipping every pregnancy help organization in the country with the resources they need.
Though there has been much progress, particularly with their virtual presence, there is still much work to be done.
Nevertheless, Daniele Gradwell remains encouraged and motivated in her work as executive director of this growing organization.
“Throughout my time with PHN, I have seen God at work,” she told Pregnancy Help News. “Whether it’s a donor stepping forward at just the right moment, or a volunteer offering help when we needed it most…these miracles constantly build my faith and inspire me to keep pushing forward and serving with compassion and conviction.”
Tweet This: “Throughout my time with Pregnancy Help Network, I have seen God at work” - Daniele Gradwell
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News. Heartbeat is currently the subject of two lawsuit brought by state AGs concerning sharing information about Abortion Pill Reversal.
